The Story

The Journey Begins Again?

In the ironic, closing sequence, Travis is recovered and unpunished. He has been released from his obsessive torment, and is back in his mundane job as a cabbie. He peacefully talks to his cabbie friends (Wizard, Dough Boy, and Charlie T) while waiting for a fare in front of the St. Regis Hotel - a more civilized part of the city. Travis is wearing his standard cabbie clothes - a light-brown jacket, jeans, and cowboy boots. A passenger has entered Travis' cab, the front cab in the waiting line in front of the hotel. It is Betsy. She is the first to speak after a long silence - she is uneasy, wary, cool, and distant, but knows of his noble deed and is a bit awed by his celebrity and notoriety for cleansing the city of its scum. Travis reveals a quiet smile on his face and watches her in the rear-view mirror. When she arrives at her destination after a basically inconsequential ride, she gets out and Travis declines her fare. He drives off into the dark night. The camera tracks backward from Betsy on the sidewalk as the cab pulls away. Travis adjusts the rear-view mirror to look back. [How cleansed and saved is Travis really? How long will it be before the pathological killer turns back to more ritualistic violence and bloody retaliation, confusing murder with sacrifice?] The credits play over further surrealistic images of New York City at night, from a cabbie's perspective.